Sunderland have had a £6m bid rejected for the Roma and USA midfielder Michael Bradley, as Paolo Di Canio continues to look for reinforcements to his squad. The club's owner, Ellis Short, has allowed Di Canio to invest around £30m in 10 new players this summer but the Italian is unsatisfied with his options in central midfield.

Di Canio has so far been unable to bring in a player who can link midfield and attack but Bradley, an energetic box-to-box midfielder, appears to fit the bill. The 26-year-old, who has scored 11 goals in 80 appearances for the USA, joined Roma from Chievo last year.

It may transpire that Roma are unwilling to sell Bradley, who had a brief loan spell at Aston Villa two years ago, given that they are close to losing the Argentinian attacker Erik Lamela to Tottenham Hotspur and have already received £14.6m from Southampton for Daniel Osvaldo, who made his debut in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

There was frustration for the visitors at St Mary's, José Fonte's late header denying them a first win of the season. Di Canio, though, was pleased with Emanuele Giaccherini, whose early header was his first goal for the club after his £6.5m move from Juventus. The winger is only 5ft 4in.

"Football is strange," Di Canio said. "Even a midget can score a goal. Because he is intelligent."

All the talk before kick-off was of police being called to Sunderland's hotel to investigate an incident in the early hours of Saturday morning. No players were involved and Di Canio explained that it occurred after guests from a wedding party hassled him and his staff as they returned to their rooms at midnight after a meeting.

Asked why the meeting ended so late, Di Canio said: "We finished watching the clips a bit late. Then we were together. We didn't kiss each other."